Recipe: Sage & Onion Stuffing

Sage & Onion Dressing (Stuffing) Makes 20 cups Bake in an 11" X 13" baking dish 350 degree oven
Buy bread approximately one week ahead and store in the refrigerator. Choose a combination of wheat, white and rye loaves to suit your taste. Any type bread will do including rolls, homemade, even the cheapest kinds of store bought. My Grandmother would collect the ends of loaves and put them into the freezer over a period of a couple of months. The reason for storing in the refrigerator for at least a week is that the bread will become somewhat stale. Good stuffing is made from stale bread. The night before: Cut bread into 1/2 inch cubes, spread out on a cookie sheet, cover loosely with waxed paper and let set out on counter or table to dry overnight. The drying is an important part of the process. If you don't have the time or patience, use un-flavored commercially prepared dried stuffing bread cubes.
20 Cups of assorted cubed bread	2 1/2 tesp. salt
1 tesp. pepper	2 1/2 tesp. rubbed or ground sage
2 1/2 tesp. rosemary	2 1/2 tesp. thyme
1/2 Cup of chopped dried parsley
All herbs and salt and pepper are "to taste". I generally use close to the maximum amounts listed, but you should start with less and add more, slowly - a 1/2 tesp. at a time, so the final product won't be too strongly flavored for your family. Using a very large bowl, combine all dried bread cubes. Sprinkle the salt, pepper and herbs over the top. Set aside while preparing the vegetables:
1/4 lb. (1 stick) butter or margarine	8 oz. of 99% fat free chicken broth
1 Cup chopped yellow onion	3 1/2 Cups finely chopped celery, including leafy parts

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Pour in chopped onion and celery and the chicken broth . Simmer these for approximately 10 minutes until onion is tender. Covering with lid will help to hold in steam. Add mixture to bread in bowl. Pour in 25 ozs. of chicken broth or broth made from boiling the giblets of the turkey. Toss gently to moisten all the bread and mix in the sautéed vegetables. ( An additional eight to sixteen ozs. of broth may be added, as needed, to completely moisten the ingredients.) Then pour evenly into baking dish which has been sprayed liberally with Pam cooking spray. Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until somewhat set and browned. Don't over bake unless you like your dressing extra dry.
Healthy suggestions: Using 99% fat free broth makes very little difference in the taste. If you REALLY don't want the fat, try it with 100% fat free or substitute fat free for at least some of the total broth. I also recommend using lower sodium brands. Sweet Sue brand Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth has 340 mgs per serving as compared to nearly 1000 mgs in some regular brands. I also use the lower fat, higher fiber types of bread such as Wonder Light white and wheat. It doesn't seem to affect the taste and so might as well get the extra fiber and not so much fat!

Recommendation for saving time: The vegetables may be chopped a day or two before and stored in zip lock bags in the refrigerator. Because stuffing can harbor bacteria, it is NEVER recommended to make the stuffing more than a few hours ahead of baking. It is Much Safer to time the meal so that the stuffing is put into the oven for baking as soon as it's mixed together. If stuffing is not to be baked right away, properly refrigerate IMMEDIATELY to be safe.

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Sage & Onion Dressing (Stuffing)